So in our trips to Halloween Horror Nights after opening night, Dan and I (as usual) took more photos, and I figured that we'd be remiss here at Westcoaster, where theme park photography is perhaps out only standout feature, to just keep them locked up on our hard drives forever. So here are a bunch of photos from the scare zones of Halloween Horror Nights 2016--which basically means Purge, Purge, and more Purge.

The Purge (Upper Lot)

By now, the main park entrance scare zone at Halloween Horror Nights is what you get every year, just with a different thematic overlay. Fire towers, dancing girls, chainsaw brigades, a couple aggressive and talented stilt walkers, and street scareactors terrorizing guests with intimidation and intensity. Like Knott's Scary Farm's Ghost Town, though, it has grown in to the place for the atmosphere most commonly associated with this "scare park." It was great to just spend some time and observe the action and visuals. Universal always does a great job with this area, and this year's Purge was no exception.

The buildings around this scene have changed over the years, but the area itself has followed the same general formula.

You've got chainsaws...

Stilt walkers...

Menacing monster guys (in this case, monsters at heart)...

Love this shot that Dan captured.

The election parallels were quite evident this year.

...and of course, zhe dancing girls. In Purge We Trust.

It was a lot of fun watching the Purge street characters patrol and scare.

A few of them even seemed to willing to play up to the camera a little bit (while still maintaining character).

The Club of Liberty?

Patriotic machete is patriotic.

This year's main scare zone was wonderfully effective because of the blur in reality.

The guys coming after you weren't fantastical monsters or mutants. They were "real people" under those masks.

"Hey, wassup to you too."

"I want YOU... to die."

Of course, those fire towers provided lots of great photogenic moments.

Helpful lighting is always appreciated.

Uncle Sam was certainly not friendly.

This is not the type of "chopping fat out of politics" that you actually want to see.

Mmmmm... blood licking...

The end of the night brought the return of the traditional Chainsaw Chase Out.

For those who've never been, during the last half hour of so, all the chainsaw scareactors from the park's street zones assemble at the main thoroughfare out of the park.

They line up still for long moments at a time, waiting, as guests filter through.

By the way, can I say how much I love teddy bear Purger? Someone mentioned that Universal did this too when I praised a Dark Harbor monster for this, but I didn't see him during my first visit. Either way, it's wonderful.

And the Chainsaw Brigade goes mad, rushing at guests and creating chaos.

It's all quite fun to watch.

And it's become a nice thing to look forward to at the end of every Halloween Horror Night.

The Purge: Gauntlet of Fear

This area was actually a big hit with a lot of people, blending a maze and scare zone. Dan and I still thought that the area was just thrown together almost at the last minute, and the fact that they changed the routing after the first weekend on the back end seems to attest to this. But the scareactors were fun to witness and interact with. They really brought the unnerving world of The Purge to life, conveying the horror of the faceless brutalizer motivated by crass, psychopathic human emotion (a threat that especially strikes home with a lot of people now, post-election). I was tough on this "scare zone" on opening night, but the park definitely made some improvements and an experience that was more enjoyabble afterwards--even if the theming was a complete mishmash of things past Horror Nights!

The Purge: Gauntlet of Fear was situated on the left side of the Upper Lot, out toward Baker Street and the old Moulin Rouge area of the park.

In many ways, it was similar to the pedestrian part of last year's Terror Tram.

Street monsters lurking through an organized pathway.

The props and set design did seem pretty random, though.

There were a lot of props reused from previous years' mazes.

Lots of victim scenes and mannequins.

Plenty of people to terrorize.

And some to offer greetings?

One of these things is not alive like the others...

That does not seem pleasant.

There are definitely some good looking parts of this "scare zone," to be sure.

The Purge is an annual gathering.

Up until this part, the theming of Gauntlet of Fear maintains a consistent theme, and then things change.

The photogenic illumination is cool.

But it's not quite clear why we suddenly enter rave territory.

Not that it doesn't attract interest.

Glowing coat is glowing.

Onto more barriers and Purgers.

I like how this shot turned out.

Awww, look, a snuggly killer plush!

This area and the previous were switched on opening night.

And why things suddenly turn into a cathedral setting is beyond me.

Perhaps there's a movie connection I'm missing?

The Purge (Lower Metro Lot)

The tunnel accessway to the Metro Lot doesn't count as a scare zone. It just... doesn't. It's really more akin to providing live entertainment in a line. The actual Purge Scare Zone over by the entrance to the Krampus, Freddy vs Jason, and American Horror Story mazes, however, was its typical short but action packed self. This was a real gauntlet that guests had to navigate, dodging Purgers coming out of shipping containers and urban ruin, only to encounter an armada of chainsaw-wielding fiends at the end. And sure, Universal might overuse chainsaws a bit, but I'm biased and love chainsaws at haunted attractions in general, so I love watching the chainsaw gang work. Although, admittedly on that overuse remark, it certainly seemed that less and less people were scattered by chainsaws this year compared to previous years. So perhaps they are starting to lose their effect after all.

Take the tunnel!!

Some people disliked having to walk all the way down to the Metro Lots, but I enjoyed it.

I enjoy walking, and that meant not having wait for a tram line.

Onto the shipping containers.

These Purgers may look like they want to play, but it's only with your life.

Scareactors took advantage of hiding within or behind the containers and then coming out of nowhere toward guests.

A scattering of mannequins also increased the tension. Which were real attackers, and which were not?

Those who escaped the first wave met the Purger girls.

2...

3...

4 ladies to Purge your hearts out. Literally.

And if that wasn't enough, a line of chainsaw-wielding fiends awaited.

The view for those who survived. The buildings of the Metro Lot are definitely nice to behold, and it's cool to have the chance to walk around here.

Overall, Halloween Horror Nights put forth another very strong and fantastic event for 2016. Immersive environments, top notch theming, and high intensity were on full display. In fact, the quality of the season probably contributed to its problems, as long and even more protracted lines were a recurring reality for the vast majority of nights at the event. The park did extend early entry an hour to 5:00pm after the first weekend, effectively providing guests with nine hours of entertainment at the event. But when you have that much time and still have to stress about being able to see all attractions at least once, there is still an inherent issue. One that Universal will have to work out through alternate methods of expanding capacity (since lowering the ticket sales limit is highly unlikely to be approved by any money numbers guy at the parks).

One promising sign saw the opening of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter on the final night of Horror Nights operations, "as a test." Whether this will be a permanent action remains to be seen, but if it's an aspect of operations that can be executed without issues (and if guests also treat the land with respect), I highly encourage it, since it opens up a significant amount of capacity for the parks and provides that much more volume to eat up more lines and relieve maze line congestion.

Another issue we saw across multiple mazes was line control. Because of its popularity, Halloween Horror Nights always sees its mazes devolve into "haunted conga lines" as guests are sent in one after another in an effort to keep lines going. However, the park does try to implement some semblance of line control, holding the line at intervals rather than simply let people go in at any time there is an opening. The method in which this seems to be done, though, seems very haphazard. Frequently, we would see the regular line held, followed by the entire balance of the Gate A front-of-line entry pushed in. That would be the order of several dozen people! Likewise, even with the regular line, the holds might last 30-60 seconds, but then fifty to a hundred people in row would be sent in (we counted). This effectively nullified the spacing between groups and meant that only the first group of the multi-dozen horde truly benefited from the element of surprise. Not all mazes were guilty of this--Krampus seemed to always move quickly and still have lesser numbers enter at a time. But many did seem to engage in this self-defeating style of line control.

Lastly, the method of scaring remains pretty one-dimensional. I've gone into the issues of ONLY relying on the "boo box" method of scare in many past posts, so I won't delve into it again. And I did find a couple of instances of maze scareactors using alternate methods of scaring. But the majority method certainly grew stagnant pretty quickly.

And here is a Spoopy Dan.

So at the end of the day, Halloween Horror Nights is a great event that also requires a lot of patience and planning (unless you go on a Thursday night or some Sundays). I suppose that is the price of success, but it dose also weigh on enjoyability. Hopefully, we'll see some better management next year. Because most everything else is pretty thrilling.